System on Chip (SoC) is a concept that has been around for a long time; the basic approach is to integrate more and more functionality into a given device. This integration can take the form of either hardware or solution software. Many SoC designs pair a microprocessor core, or multiple cores, with various peripheral devices and memory circuits.
A radio frequency (RF) transceiver may be included within a SoC, and may include fully integrated CMOS Low noise amplifiers (LNAs) and power amplifiers (PAs). Differential circuits are often chosen to reduce the effect of ground noise in LNA circuits and double the output power level for PAs under the same supply voltage. However, antennas are often single-ended and therefore a matching network to transform impedance may be required to interface the single-ended antenna to differential circuits on-chip.
The Bluetooth standard was designed to achieve cost effective wireless communications providing a data rate of 1 Mb/s at 10 m distance. Destined to be primarily a flexible cable replacement, growth in the Bluetooth arena has mushroomed. The specifications for the standard have been relaxed in order to facilitate a fully integrated chipset solution. Therefore this standard is very suitable for an SoC approach. Several platforms are already available on the market for Bluetooth SoC rapid development and prototyping to shorten design cycles and limit the scope of design teams. A Bluetooth RF transceiver requires several system components: a quadrature frequency synthesizer, a low noise amplifier (LNA), mixers to provide frequency translation from RF frequencies to baseband, and amplifiers.
Other features of the present embodiments will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows.